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The Philippine Board on Books for Young People is now
accepting entries for its Wordless Book Prize. 2018 will mark the first year that the PBBY will be awarding
such a prize. The winner shall receive twenty thousand pesos and a medal.
Prizes shall be awarded at an appropriate ceremony to be held on National
Children's Book Day, July 17, 2018. CONTEST RULES The contest is open to all Filipino citizens except those
who are related to any PBBY member up to the third degree of consanguinity. All entries must be e-mailed to pbbywordless@gmail.com. For
this contest, all submissions must be in digital form, with each file clearly
identifiable by a filename that is actually the pen name of the contestant. Entries may be in color or in black and white. They may be
digitally rendered or traditionally done artwork that may or may not have been
digitally enhanced. The submission format should be pdf. Entries should use the
CMYK color space and should be at actual size format with resolution at 3…

"My name is Alex Petroski and my house is
in Rockview, Colorado, United States of America, planet Earth. I am eleven
years and eight months old . . ."
Filipino American Alex Petroski
LOVES astronomy. His hero is Carl Sagan, the astronomer who sent a "Golden
Record" out into space. In 1977, NASA launched Voyager 1 and Voyager 2. In
case the spacecraft ever made contact with extraterrestrial life forms, or
future humans, each had on board a "Golden Record," a copper phonograph LP
featuring a collection of sounds and images meant to portray the life and
culture on planet Earth. The recorded sounds included things like wind,
thunder, bird songs, greetings in 55 languages, and the brainwaves of a
woman in love. (You can actually listen to the audio of the Golden Record
here.)
Alex has built his very own rocket,
Voyager 3, and plans to launch it into space at SHARF (Southwest High-Altitude…

I am very happy to share an interview with Erin Entrada Kelly, Filipino American author of the excellent middle grade novels Blackbird Fly (Greenwillow Books, 2015), The Land of Forgotten Girls (Greenwillow Books, 2016) - one of the best middle grade novels I've ever read, Hello, Universe (Greenwillow Books, 2017), and the forthcoming You Go First (Greenwillow Books, 2018).Hello, Erin! To start, can you please tell us about your Filipino
background? I am
mestiza. My father is from the US. My mother is from Sogod, Southern Leyte, and
lives in Cebu. What are the five books that turned you into a writer? It’s hard to
pinpoint five books. I’ve always been a big reader. When I was about seven or
eight, I realized that books were just pen and paper, which meant that I could
write my own stories. That’s when I started writing. I’ve been writing for so long that I don’t remember a time in my life when I wasn’t working on
something. So I guess I never turned into a writer—I was born that way…

This year’s PBBY-Alcala Grand Prize winner is art student Sophia Lorraine Demanawa, from the Ateneo De Manila University. Demanawa is studying Information Design and is an active member of Blue Indie Komiks (BLINK). She earned the judges’ unanimous vote for her fresh portrayal of Genaro Gojo Cruz’s Dalawa Kami ni Lola. Gojo Cruz’s story bagged the 2017 PBBY-Salanga Prize. Aside from illustrating, Demanawa also enjoys making comics, designing gig posters, and writing poetry.

Four other illustrators were chosen as Honorable Mention: Arade Louise Villena, Mary Grace Theresa Dulawan, Christian Oliver Cruz, and Irene Rose Buenaventura. The winners will be awarded at the National Children’s Book Day (NCBD) celebration on July 18, 2017 at the Cultural Center of the Philippines. For inquiries about the contest and the NCBD celebration, contact the PBBY Secretariat at telephone number 352 6765 loc 204 or e-mail pbby@adarna.com.ph.

Scholastic, the global children’s publishing, education and media company, is giving a chance to Filipino writers living in Asia to submit a short synopsis and the opening pages of their unpublished chapter book or novel and stand a chance to be shortlisted to receive a review and written feedback from the man who discovered J.K. Rowling, Mr. Barry Cunningham.

In partnership withthe Philippine Board on Books for Young People (PBBY), You Write to Me, I'll Write to You is a manuscript critique initiative ofthe Scholastic Asian Book Award (SABA)in an effort to further encourage and inspire Asian writers. The manuscript critique initiative aspires to motivate writers while assisting them to get their manuscript in shape and recognizing excellence in Asian writings. A total of six entries (the brief synopses and opening pages of six manuscripts) will be shortlisted to receive a review and written feedback from Mr. Cunningham, and only the most outstanding entry from the shortlist will re…

I just finished reading The Way Home in the Night by Akiko Miyakoshi (Kids Can Press; April 4, 2017), originally Yoru no Kaerimichi (Kaisei-Sha
Publishing, 2015). This book caught my eye because of its bunny (one of my favorite animals!) main character and its Japanese author-illustrator. Of course
I had to read it. This isn’t a cute, cuddly, fluffy bunny though. This bunny
and the other animal characters rendered in pencil, charcoal, and acrylic
gouache are surreal – even reminding me a bit of the Twilight Zone – but the
effect is beautiful.

The bunny is observing his neighbors as he walks home with
his parents at the end of the day. There’s a bookseller closing his shop for
the night, a neighbor watching TV, a party next door, and more. When he’s tucked
into bed, he wonders about his neighbors: Is the bookseller reading on his
couch? Are the party guests saying goodbye? Are his neighbors getting ready for
bed, or already snug in bed like him? It’s a different take on the bedtime book…

The winner shall be given a cash prize of P25,000, a gold medal, and an opportunity to be published. Prizes will be awarded in an appropriate ceremony to be held during the celebration of National Children’s Book Day onJuly 18.

Contest RulesThe contest is open to all Filipino citizens except those who are related to any PBBY member up to the third degree of consanguinity.Entries must be based on the 2017 PBBY-Salanga Prize winning storyDalawa Kami ni Lola by Genaro Gojo Cruz. A copy of this story may be requested from the PBBY Secretariat ordownloaded from the PBBY website.All entries must be original unpublished illustrations that have not won in any previous contest.All entries must consist of three (3) illustrations that are of the same size and medium. Entries do not have to be based on consecutive spreads/parts of the text.A contestant may send in more than one (1) entry.…